2013 YOY Striped Bass Report for Chesapeake Bay

[Fishidiot]

The 2013 young-of-the-year report from Maryland DNR on striped bass is complete. The short version is that the numbers came in at slightly below the long term average (going back 60 years) but was well above last year. 2011 was an extremely good year which will start showing up in angler's catches in future years.

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/news/story.asp?story_id=351&title=DNR-Release-2013-Young-of-the-Year-Striped-Bass-Survey

 

[vcregular]

Me personally. I think two years ago was an anomaly. I also think the fall run is getting shorter and shorter in recent years, and more compressed each year. Enforcement of the EEZ catch is lacking, which is unfortunate since I believe more fish are migrating off the coast in deeper water - and these are the big breeder fish. Sorry for the neg thoughts, but that is how I currently feel about the striped bass fishery.

Besides when was the last time there was rafts of peanuts along the beaches. I need to go back 5+ years to see that.

I really hope we are not doomed to repeat the past. If it does, even to a lesser extent, it would be an illustration of a complete fishery management failure.

 

[geebee]

I agree vc, the cape cod fall run has just been memories for 4-5 years now. The big fish just no longer hit the beaches.

I'm hoping this fall will be worth it in NJ.

I blame the rec anglers for cherry picking out all the big breeders and the commercial menhaden fishery.

 

[Mike]

You are complaining in the wrong forum. The ASMFC striped bass management board is meeting on Tuesday at 8:30 AM. I have seen the letters from striper anglers that they have received and I have yet to see a single one from Pa. If you have concerns and management suggestions, they are not clear to the striper board. And that is a shame, because I think that there is a good chance for mgmt changes to be considered this time.

 

[afishinado]

Mike wrote:
You are complaining in the wrong forum. The ASMFC striped bass management board is meeting on Tuesday at 8:30 AM. I have seen the letters from striper anglers that they have received and I have yet to see a single one from Pa. If you have concerns and management suggestions, they are not clear to the striper board. And that is a shame, because I think that there is a good chance for mgmt changes to be considered this time.

Good to hear, Mike.

Your can make your voice heard here:

http://www.asmfc.org/about-us/public-input

 

[Mike]

See the link below to the draft review of the ASMFC striped bass management plan. At first you will find letters written by other sportsmen. Scrolling down will take you to the plan. The Figures, particularly Figure 1 (Spawning stock biomass - SSB) and the portion of Figure 5, which reports the YOY indices for various systems over time, will be of interest. You'll need to scroll down through the multi-page Figure 5 to get to the YOY indices, where you will see that good, above average YOY numbers in the Md index for Chesapeake Bay are not unusual, but I guess that depends upon your personal definition of "unusual." "Several years of average reproduction mixed with large and small year-classes are typical for Striped Bass," said DNR Fisheries Director Tom O'Connell. "For example, as recently as 2011, we saw the fourth-highest spawning success in the survey's history." Other Figures regarding harvest, fishing mortality, and amount of commercial vs sport harvest, etc will be of interest as well, I believe.

If you go to the annual ASMFC meeting announcement at the home page under "meetings", you will find that you may sign up for the webinar broadcast of the striped bass board meeting that will occur at 8:30AM on Tuesday and is scheduled to last until about noon (if that much time is needed).





http://www.asmfc.org/files/Meetings/Annual2013/AtlStripedBassBoard_Supplemental.pdf

 

[Fishidiot]

I was looking at the AMFC site last night trying to find if it was still possible to comment at this late date on striper population and management issues. The website is large and the PDF docs are big and I don't have time to read through all of them.

Am I correct that the acceptance period for striper comments (via email) has passed?

 

[Mike]

If you want to email brief comments to me by mid-day tomorrow, I will forward them to Pa's rep on the Board. The other states will not see them, however, at this late date. mkaufmann@pa.gov

 

[Fishidiot]

Email sent.

Thanks Mike for collecting/forwarding some belated comments from PA guys.

 

[Mike]

Thank you to Dave and one other individual (not providing his name here in case he wishes to remain anonymous). Your comments were forwarded to Pa's rep on the ASMFC striper board. I have also saved your comments in a file.

 

[Fishidiot]

Evidently the ASMFC voted on striped bass management in our favor recommending (or adopting) lower "targets" and "thresholds."

I'm a bit unclear on what exactly this means but apparently there will be stricter harvest of SB in future years, which is good. When I get more info about this, I'll post it here (or Mike or one of you with better info can do so). Evidently some good news.

 

[vcregular]

I listened to part of the discussion. And I am paraphrasing. One item I heard was that the current population (reproducing) of bass is about similar to 1995 when the fishery was considered 'restored.' However, the fishery was building then. Presently, the fisheries population is going the other way. Not good. Also, quite a few of the voters seem to be hanging their hat on the 2011 chessy class. Which was an anomaly. In my opinion. Hope I am wrong.

There was a proposal to limit catch to 1 fish a day, 28". That got voted down 2-12 or something like that. I wonder if the PA vote was one of those in favor? I am curious to see the transcript and voting details. The 1 fish a day was considered too drastic, and implementing management changes too quickly.

I think this striped bass committee is really interested is seeing how long and far they can kick the can.

If I mis-represented anything, please correct.